Orlando City draws enthusiastic crowd for exhibition loss to AS Roma

Orlando City loses 5-0 to AS Roma in soccer exhibition at Rollins.

WINTER PARK — Leo Timis walked around Barker Family Stadium for more than an hour leading to Wednesday's exhibition soccer match between Orlando City and AS Roma.

A self-described lifelong fan of the Italian club, Timis proudly sported his favorite team's colors, waved a Roma flag and chanted a variety of songs, in Italian, about the Yellow-Reds.

"It's like I'm a newborn," said Timis, a native of Romania who lives in Pompano Beach.

"It's very rare that they come, but we go up with them because we love to see them. And here we are."

Roma defeated the Lions 5-0 at Rollins College. Erik Lamela scored two goals in the first 13 minutes, and Roma — the three-time Serie A champion — scored four first-half goals against Orlando City of the USL Pro League.

"When we went down after 12 minutes, I wasn't sure if it was going to be an enjoyable afternoon," Orlando City coach Adrian Heath said. "But on the whole, I was quite pleased."

"It was a terrific day," Heath said. "For some of our younger players, it's been a huge eye opener to what the next level, or the next three levels above us, is like."

The 500-seat stadium was at capacity, forcing several hundred Orlando City and Roma fans to watch through the gate surrounding the complex.

Said Orlando City defender Luke Boden: "Our fans are always out strong cheering us on, and obviously the Roma fans came on to cheer Roma. It was a great atmosphere, a great experience."

Orlando City fan Michael Rissech was one of the observers relegated to watching the game outside.

"It's not your typical game," Rissech said. "I saw [Roma] train at the Wide World of Sports on Sunday, and I was surprised to see how many Italians are in Orlando. It was a big surprise just to see the excitement, to see that maybe we can get some new fans just from bringing a team like this to Orlando."

Roma was in Florida for its winter training camp and left for Italy immediately after Wednesday's match. Because of the team's tight schedule, Roma's players were not available to the media.

Owen Russell, a member of the Orlando City fan group "Space Coast Alliance," took the day off work and watched the game with his son.

"It's a workday for most, or else we'd have even more people here," Russell said. "There are only so many vacation days to take, and I figured this should be one of them."